-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I would also--before I talk about the SAVE Act, I just want to point out how the Democrats at this point, time and time again, have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security at a time where we have conflict, at a time where we have seen terrorist attacks on the homeland--whether it is in Austin, Old Dominion, in Michigan--through the disastrous immigration policy overseen by the Biden administration with the Democrats where 15 million people came in here illegally, many of which we have no idea who they are. Most of them, we have no idea who they are. We do know that there are tens of thousands of murderers, hundreds of thousands of violent criminals.

And the Democrats hate ICE and want to defund ICE so much they are willing to endanger the lives of the American people for this showboating and grandstanding.

So anything they do out here to act like--it is just covering their rear ends because they know they are the ones responsible for defunding the Department of Homeland Security--that means TSA agents, that means the travel of the American people, that means the Coast Guard, that means the Secret Service, that means investigating people who are trafficking children here.

This is a wildly bizarre, out-of-step ideology at this point where open borders is now in their DNA, and their refusal to want to get rid of people who shouldn't be here in the first place and prioritizing people who are here illegally over American citizens is nuts. S. 1383

Mr. President, which leads me to the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, this is about making sure that American elections are for Americans and also protecting women and girls from having men participating in their sports and children being mutilated and offered up at the altar of a radical ideology.

Yesterday, Democrats unleashed a coordinated barrage of lies about this amendment, this amendment that I have, the substitute amendment, the SAVE America Act. President Trump has talked about it, wildly supported.

They have told lies about it, from claims of voter suppression and mass disenfranchisement, to the absurd charge that it somehow makes it harder for married women to vote.

How insulting. How insulting. It is pure unadulterated fearmongering without any basis in fact or in law. So today, I rise to do one thing they fear the most: present the actual text of the bill.

The SAVE America Act has three clear claims, this amendment that is pending: Title I, SAVE American Voters restores integrity to our Federal elections. What could be more important in this Republic, this continent-wide Republic, where we committed to ourselves this idea of self-government and structure, to make sure that people who are voting are who they say they are and they are not here illegally.

It requires proof of citizenship to register to vote, requires voter identification, makes in-person voting the rule for able-bodied Americans, while preserving absentee ballots for our military, individuals with disabilities, caregivers, those who are sick, those who are even traveling, and verified hardship cases that the State can determine.

Title II, SAVE American Sports, defends biology and biological reality in women's and girls sports.

And title III, SAVE American Children, protects innocent children from irreversible medical mutilation and chemical castration.

That is what we are actually debating, not all these lies and all the nonsense to distract the American people from really popular issues-- 80-20 issues, 90-10 issues. These are commonsense issues, and they are very afraid of them. They are very afraid of having to vote on these things. They are very afraid of these things becoming law because it is really difficult to go back home and explain your ``no'' vote on that, that you think only Americans can vote in American elections.

But the Democrats would rather fight ghosts than facts. The Democrats claim this bill targets Democrat voters. That is a lie, the most revealing one of all. This bill targets only fraudulent and illegal voters, noncitizens who have no right to our ballot and cheaters who refuse even the most basic safeguards of lawful voting.

If my Democrat colleagues want to stand here and suggest that requiring citizenship and voter ID somehow threatens their political coalition, they are free to make that argument, but maybe you are protesting just a little bit too much. But the American people are listening.

The Democrats claim that voters will have to show up to the polls carrying proof of citizenship. That is false. That is not what the bill says. This bill allows any individual to make an attestation at the polling place, if it is questioned about his or her citizenship. If you are registered to vote, you remain registered to vote. So, no, the bill doesn't require American citizens to drag a file folder of citizenship papers to the polls.

They call it Jim Crow 2.0. It is worth remembering that it was the Democrat Party that withheld the franchise from Black Americans. It was the Democrat Party that waged a civil war to keep people oppressed because of their race.

These claims are total nonsense. What this bill does require is far more modest and far more reasonable, that the Americans at least attest--you have to attest that you are a citizen.

People believe that citizens should vote. Noncitizens don't get to vote.

I know my Democrat colleagues wanted 15 million people here illegally to count in the census and mess with reapportionment because they lost the argument with the American people, but that is not what this bill does. It says that only Americans can vote in our elections.

Let me say that again. My Democrat colleagues have pulled a five- alarm fire because this bill asks people to simply attest that they are U.S. citizens when they newly register to vote here.

That is not suppression. That is not disenfranchisement. That is the bare minimum of seriousness in a self-governing Republic. American elections are for Americans. And spoiler alert for my Democrat colleagues: Federal law already requires applicants to attest that they are citizens when they register to vote.

Mr. President, 52 USC section 20508(b)(2) requires the Federal voter registration form to include a statement that includes citizenship. All we are doing here is taking that from a box-check exercise to something that an election authority can actually verify in an individual assessment.

That provision, by the way, was introduced by a Democrat Congressman, passed by a Democrat-led Senate, and signed into law by a Democrat President. Oh, how times have changed. I have seen a clip recently of the minority leader begging for fraud protections, begging that photo ID be presented when people vote. But something has happened.

The Democrat Party has been completely radicalized and believes that illegal immigrants should be able to come here, never have to leave, and now vote in our elections.

But, today, that same commonsense idea that I just mentioned is slandered as ``Jim Crow.''

The Democrats claim that the bill text disenfranchises married women with name changes. That is also false. The text of the bill makes plain as day that married women are not going to have to reregister to vote. All they have to do is attest that they are an American citizen.

And they are afraid of these facts because they know that people are aware of the facts.

This remains an 80-20 issue, a 90-10 issue; and it makes it really hard for them to explain their ``no'' vote. It couldn't be any easier. This is common sense. It is actually insane and ridiculous that we have to debate this.

So their talking points are wrong. It is reckless and an attempt to frighten the American people. They claim it abolishes absentee voting. That is also false.

It ends the COVID-era experiment of mass mail-in voting by default-- the same disorder that weakened the chain of custody, blurred deadlines, and undermined public confidence when the leftist lawyers streamed all across this country in 2020 trying to undermine voter integrity laws.

When I was attorney general in Missouri, we stood up, we fought back, and we won all three cases. We didn't settle those cases and allow some ridiculous election process where ballots are just sent out, whether people requested them or not; with random drop boxes all over; no way to verify the votes; and deadlines didn't matter.

This bill actually does preserve absentee voting for Americans with real needs: our military members, the disabled, caregivers, and verified hardship cases--those who are sick, those who are traveling, and others.

They claim that it triggers mass purges of lawful citizens. That is false. They know it.

In other words, the pattern here is simple. They don't want to debate what is actually in the bill. They want to terrify people with things that are not actually in the bill because the truth is that this amendment--this substitute amendment that I have offered--is built on three propositions that normal Americans understand immediately: Citizenship matters, biological reality matters, and protecting children matters.

This Senate was not sent here to traffic in slogans or manage decline. As America approaches her 250th birthday, the least we can do is prove that self-government still means something; that a nation still has the right to define membership; that elections still deserve rules; that women and girls still deserve protection; that children still deserve adults willing to defend them.

Read the text. Debate the text. Then have the courage to vote for it. The time for excuses is over. The time to govern and to defend our Republic has arrived. Pass the SAVE America Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source